Northwest airliner crash bolstered air safety

A Northwest Orient jetliner, similar to the one pictured, crashed southwest of Miami in 1963.

Ken KayeSun Sentinel

Northwest Orient Flight 705, a four-engine Boeing 720 jetliner, took off from Miami International Airport into a sky full of boiling thunderstorms, broke apart and plunged into the Everglades 42 miles southwest of the airport. All 43 people onboard perished.

That was 50 years ago as of Tuesday. At the time, Feb. 12, 1963, John F. Kennedy was president, a new car cost about $3,200 and a loaf of bread 22 cents.

It also was shortly after the dawn of the jet age, when pilots put too much faith in the speed and power of jetliners - and didn't fully understand their limitations.

Although the crash has been obscured by numerous other air disasters with much great death tolls, it still is remembered as the first time a jetliner disintegrated in midair as a result of severe weather.

It also provided important lessons that bolstered air safety. Cockpit instruments and radar equipment were upgraded and safer procedures were developed to penetrate areas of turbulence.

Theresa Heil Trebon, of Sedro-Woolley, Wash., who lost her father in the accident, hopes to erect a monument to remember the accident and its victims. For more information, visit her blog.